"A Little Tooth"
Your baby grows a tooth, then two,
and four, and five, then she wants some meat
directly off the bone. It's all
over: she'll learn some words, she'll fall
in love with cretins, dolts, a sweet
talker on his way to jail. And you,
your wife, get old, flyblown, and rue
nothing. You did, you loved, your feet
are sore. It's dusk. Your daughter's tall.
---Thomas Lux
A crisper version of the poster here.
thanks for posting -- been trying to find it since I read it and it made my cry on the train (I just had a daughter a few months ago).
ReplyDeleteAnyway, thanks
Bless you. I have been searching everywhere for this poignant poem to read at a community poetry night and nothing...until you! Deanne
ReplyDeleteI could not agree more. I tried to scribble the poem into my notebook on the A train this AM because I wanted to point out to my students the cleverness of the rhymes. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI commute daily on NYC subways and this is the most touching poem in motion I've read. I held my tears upon reading. I felt the train moving fast and life was moving ahead even faster. Before long my station would arrive and there I'm, it is dusk and my daughter is tall.
ReplyDelete